Do you practice pushing?

[XpingpingpongpongX]

We usually just practice drives and loops, with occasional serve-receive practices. And I have never seen people practicing or even discussing pushing. I find this quite interesting. For us amateurs, I think pushing can win more points than looping/smashing because usually we have better consistency with pushing. I have won points/gained advantages against 300-400 higher rating opponents by sudden fast and long pushing to their wide forehand, or short push to their forehand then a long push to their backhand. But since we never have pushing practice, I don't have good control on fast and long pushing. This is one area that I feel I could improve relatively quickly and easily and thus improve my overall gameplay a lot.

Any comment on pushing practice?

 

[Dr Evil]

Strongly agree. I frequently do long push to long push for a few minutes, and sometimes a pushing-only game to 11. Really helps develop feel, variation, deception. Always do the usual short serve-short push-long push-open up and short serve-long push-open up-counter drills.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

pushings are for unkers & unteez!
( uncles & aunties / ojisan & obasan )
My previous coach & also many conventional coach has a aversion towards pushes. They will want their student to open up ASAP and start the topspin to topspin rally.

 

[XpingpingpongpongX]

pushings are for unkers & unteez!
( uncles & aunties / ojisan & obasan )
My previous coach & also many conventional coach has a aversion towards pushes. They will want their student to open up ASAP and start the topspin to topspin rally.

That's what I have been doing because attacking feels good. But table tennis is about varying so your opponents can't keep up with you right? I don't mean to just keep pushing and forget about other things. But sometimes, a good push can give you a much better situation to open up.

 

[Ultravisitor]

That's what I have been doing because attacking feels good. But table tennis is about varying so your opponents can't keep up with you right? I don't mean to just keep pushing and forget about other things. But sometimes, a good push can give you a much better situation to open up.

Totally agree. If you have the time to train pushes, do it. Especially training placement and disguising of spin.

 

[Topspinslinger]

Length and placement of your pushes are critical, this is what I practice daily with my regular drills. Which are basicly just common situations in matches

 

[BlotOnPaper]

Every table tennis point starts with serve-recieve, so training pushes is just a must to be confident and control the ball. As well as flicks, i think a lot of times pushes and flicks are undertrained in amateurs. You can't go to topspin rallies without playing close to the table, so everything that can give you an advantage at the start of the point brings a lot of value.

 

[XpingpingpongpongX]

I don't have a coach or training buddies. And pushing seems boring to people in general. So how should I train? practice serve-receive and focus on pushing and placement?

 

[Lazer]

One of my training buddies is a deffie so I get that automatically…

Cheers
L-zr

 

[BlotOnPaper]

I don't have a coach or training buddies. And pushing seems boring to people in general. So how should I train? practice serve-receive and focus on pushing and placement?

Paid sparring. Probably some players with level close to yours would be willing to train pushes for a bit of cash, much less than a coach. It's hard to find training buddies to practice such thing so you can use your superpower as an adult - money

 

[cytivrat]

I don't have a coach or training buddies. And pushing seems boring to people in general. So how should I train? practice serve-receive and focus on pushing and placement?

It might not be that boring if both of you agree to play a few sets just pushing. The desire to win could make it a lot more interesting.

 

[tzifos]

As a defender I practice a lot on pushing either with pips or with inverted. While practicing pushes I also practice twiddling the racket

 

[dingyibvs]

Strongly agree. I frequently do long push to long push for a few minutes, and sometimes a pushing-only game to 11. Really helps develop feel, variation, deception. Always do the usual short serve-short push-long push-open up and short serve-long push-open up-counter drills.

Long push to long push IMO is not super useful. If I'm pushing long I'm expecting to either be attacked or I'm attacking the next shot. I do a good number of opening loop practices with my training partner, where we serve short backspin and followed by a long push (but occasionally short just to mix things up) and then loop. This IMO is a more realistic long push practice along with being a good opening loop practice.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

We usually just practice drives and loops, with occasional serve-receive practices. And I have never seen people practicing or even discussing pushing. I find this quite interesting. For us amateurs, I think pushing can win more points than looping/smashing because usually we have better consistency with pushing. I have won points/gained advantages against 300-400 higher rating opponents by sudden fast and long pushing to their wide forehand, or short push to their forehand then a long push to their backhand. But since we never have pushing practice, I don't have good control on fast and long pushing. This is one area that I feel I could improve relatively quickly and easily and thus improve my overall gameplay a lot.

Any comment on pushing practice?

One player, practice serves, the other receives and practice pushing.
All pushes is important and we train it.
We would also use multiball feeds to increase the quantity of pushes.
ie for the attacker - push, then attack

 

[Metaxa]

Pushing, a forgotten exercise!
The basis of everything!

 

[pong99]

little chubby and the goat think push practice is important

 

[Dr Evil]

Long push to long push IMO is not super useful. If I'm pushing long I'm expecting to either be attacked or I'm attacking the next shot. I do a good number of opening loop practices with my training partner, where we serve short backspin and followed by a long push (but occasionally short just to mix things up) and then loop. This IMO is a more realistic long push practice along with being a good opening loop practice.

I almost never long push a long push in a game, but I still find it useful to develop feel and variations. Helps me especially with handling heavy short serves. Similar with chopping, backhand counter-looping, etc.

 

[Tinykin]

For reference, view the Yoshimuro v Nie match.
Conclusion: we all need to practise the long push.

 

[songdavid98]

We usually just practice drives and loops, with occasional serve-receive practices. And I have never seen people practicing or even discussing pushing. I find this quite interesting. For us amateurs, I think pushing can win more points than looping/smashing because usually we have better consistency with pushing. I have won points/gained advantages against 300-400 higher rating opponents by sudden fast and long pushing to their wide forehand, or short push to their forehand then a long push to their backhand. But since we never have pushing practice, I don't have good control on fast and long pushing. This is one area that I feel I could improve relatively quickly and easily and thus improve my overall gameplay a lot.

Any comment on pushing practice?

For long pushes, you don't see people practice it much because it's easy to do (in comparison with to other techniques). It's also intuitive and it's one of the things even an untrained club player figures out with no coaching.

You'll maybe see someone learning to push for the first time practice it a little and then never again. The rest of the practice comes from serve return, which is one of the hardest topics in table tennis.

For short pushes, you do see good players practicing them.

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In your case, if you feel you can improve quickly with some more pushing practice, go ahead. It'll probably take you like 5 minutes and then you won't have to practice again until next year.

If you feel like you still lack control, I'd probably blame your ability to read the ball instead of lack of pushing practice. We'd have to see video to know for sure.

 

[schrodingerskoalabear]

Coincidentally, did a 10 minute push drill the other day with the goal of either winning point through placement or eventually open up by 3rd ball.

As an intermediate player, found it very useful to focus on pushes. The drill allowed me to practice the following two game situations:

(i) I push passively with not enough depth. In the drill, I got a better feeling for angles + aiming deep so I can prepare for an open up. This is good as in-game, I feel like pushing is a weakness. Now I can view as another weapon in the arsenal.

(ii) I end up in a push rally and end up opening out of frustration. Drill make it me feel more comfortable opening up 5th or 7th ball if I have missed a 3rd or 4th ball opportunity.